Medicaid expansion could become a campaign issue in Senate races

Medicaid expansion could become a campaign issue in Senate races

9:04 PM,
Jul. 13, 2014

Lead physician Dr. Aaron Gerstenmaier listens to the breathing of a patient at the Community of Hope Clinic in Washington, D.C. Not all states expanded Medicaid, and the issue remains highly contested in the Deep South, including Louisiana and Mississippi, where the issue has become key for their Senate races.

Written by

Deborah Barfield Berry
Gannett Washington Bureau

The debate over whether to expand Medicaid could become a key issue in the competitive Senate races in Louisiana and Mississippi, political experts say.

"This is an issue that would seem to have a lot of potential because both states have large populations of uninsured people,''said Albert Samuels, a political scientist at Southern University in Louisiana.

Democratic and Republican candidates have been at odds over whether states should expand Medicaid, an option under the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Medicaid is the federal/state health insurance program for the poor. ...